It is perhaps wise that the Argonauts are determined to put the past behind them, to not rest on the laurels of a Grey Cup championship, to treat the 2013 CFL season that they open at home on Friday night as a standalone entity that has little to do with last year.

It’s dangerous to live off history and the bottom of the standings are littered with sports teams who think what they did in the past has an impact on the present.

But when those big situations arise in games, when it’s absolutely imperative that someone somehow make some kind of big play, don’t for a second think that the Argos won’t draw on recent history, at least for the moment.

“I think going into the year, you definitely feel confident that your past experience (is that) you know how to handle things a little bit better,” quarterback Ricky Ray said Thursday after the Argos finished last-minute preparations for Friday’s season opener against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at the Rogers Centre. “You know that you’ve played in big games and you’ve been successful, you know you can overcome a lot.

“When we do get into these big games or we get into situations that are tough, we can draw off of that past experience.”

For Ray, whose stellar play in the final month of last season and the playoffs made up for a shaky start to his first year with the Argos, goes into the season feeling far more comfortable than a year ago.

He and coach Scott Milanovich have developed the necessary trust and bond that has to exist between staff and quarterback and Ray goes into the season with specific goals in mind. He knows what he has to do in the Milanovich scheme to give the Argos the best chance to win.

“I’m not ridiculous with it where I write everything down,” he said of his season-long goals. “But there are things that I shoot for throughout the course of the year that if I do this, it’ll put our team in the best position to win.

“You don’t want to turn the football over, so the goal every game is not to have any turnovers. For me, just looking at my history, I’d like to complete 65 per cent of my passes, that’s the strength of my game.”

The Argos will be facing a remade Hamilton team that’s trying to erase the sting of a 6-12 non-playoff 2012 season. Kent Austin takes over as the team’s head coach — he worked wonders in leading the Saskatchewan Roughriders to the 2007 Grey Cup title — and former Argo standout Orlando Steinhauer is the team’s new defensive co-ordinator.

There hasn’t been an awful lot of time to figure out what the duo might have cooked up for the Ticats, making Friday’s game one that could have a lot of improvising on the run.

That’s another place Toronto’s experience should come in handy.

“Obviously we know (Steinhauer), he was from here and he’s got a little bit of experience co-ordinating in this league but really, we try and compete the best we can and it’ll be a lot of adjustments on the field and at halftime that we’re going to have to go through, even more than a usual game,” said Ray.

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